Five New Picture Books for Children

A bestselling author suggests 5 great picture books for kids.

GUEST BUTLER BARBARA BOTTNERhas written more than 40 books for children and teenagers. (For her Amazon Author Page, click here.] She’s won national awards and appeared on the New York Times bestseller list. Her animations appeared on the Electric Company and Sesame Street. (Bert sang her lyrics). Her short stories appeared in Cosmopolitan and The New York Times. As an actress, she traveled through Europe with Ellen Stewart’s Café La Mama, and worked with Sam Shepherd among others. She’s now completing a free-verse YA novel, “From The Awful Girl With Love.”

The stores teem with picture books. Some have few words, some have fully realized narratives. Children read at many different levels simultaneously, which multiplies the problem, and then there’s the almost impossible task of recognizing which stories are fresh, authentic mirrors of a child’s world from those that are simply published as “products.” Of the Spring batch, most of the books I’ve picked come from veteran authors, who don’t rely on tricks, rhymes, or easy tropes. Okay if I include one of my own?

My Book of Beautiful Oops, by Barney Saltzberg(3-14 years)In this workbook sequel to the bestselling “Beautiful Oops,” we go beyond celebrating mistakes to actually creating them. The original Oops tricked, beguiled and enticed readers to imagine what errors could become with a little bit of imagination. Here’s the opportunity to allow them to enjoy their own experiments. “What can you do with a half a word?” or “Yikes! A broken plate! Make it beautiful!” Or: “Holy moley. Those could be faces or fish, or monsters or a whole lot of things.” With colorful paper folds, tears, inkblots and holes, Saltzberg invites kids and adults to depart from the constraints of doing things perfectly in order to do them joyfully. [To buy the book from Amazon, click here.]

Priscilla Gorilla, by Barbara Bottner(4-7 years)Sometimes a girl just has to be a gorilla, especially if she believes “gorillas always get their way.” Priscilla refuses to take off her gorilla pajamas for the school photo, which gets her sent to the Thinking Corner where she discovers she doesn’t much like to think. Because she takes a stand, she inspires her classmates, and resulting in a class revolution. Finally her dad reads from her Gorilla Handbook, which points out that gorillas have stuck around because they cooperate. Priscilla learns how to stop being a ‘troublemaker’ gorilla, but still retain her leadership ability, individuality and passion. [To buy the book from Amazon, click here.]

Say Hello, Sophie, by Rosemary Wells(preschool)Sophie has her troubles. “In the window of Belinsky’s Bakery was a tray of crocodile cream puffs. Sophie wanted one.” “What do we say?” asks Sophie’s mother upon being greeted by Mrs. Belinsky. “The word hello was stuck in Sophie’s mouth.” Wells always creates accessible characters with age-appropriate concerns, and we root for Sophie to overcome herself so that she can happily function in her world. This time, it’s granny to the rescue with a conveniently timed toothache. [To buy the book from Amazon, click here. For the Kindle edition, click here.]

A Perfect Day, by Lane Smith(4-8 years)With dazzling, textured art, Smith renders a bucolic afternoon as experienced by a squirrel, a chickadee, a dog, a cat, and, ultimately, a bear, whose day is the most perfect of all — having eventually gobbled everyone else up. “The warmth of the sun,” the book begins innocently, “felt good on cat’s back. Cat liked to be in the flower bed where the daffodils grew.” There’s a long tradition in children’s books for things to end badly; it is part of the necessity to pass on to kids that life has dangers. In this picture book the danger is balanced by the visual pleasures and the economy of language and the sly narrative that tempers the dire end to this “perfect day.” [To buy the book from Amazon, click here. For the Kindle edition, click here.]

A Young Mannered Young Wolf, by Jean Leroy(4-8 years)There is trouble lurking in this picture book as well. Here the predator is a young wolf. But he distinguishes himself because, although trolling for his next meal, he has manners. “A young wolf, whose parents had taught him good manners, went hunting alone in the forest for the first time. Very quickly, he caught a rabbit.” Here’s when it gets interesting. “Hello,” says the wolf. “What is your last wish before I eat you?” When the rabbit is denied his freedom, he asks to be read a story. The dutiful wolf complies and, poof! Rabbit is gone. The next victim, a chicken, wants the wolf to play music. When the wolf complies and the chicken disappears, a disgruntled wolf sighs, “Another liar!” He finds a boy who asks for a drawing. “Magnificent! Thank you very much,” says the boy, who adds: “I’d like to show my drawing to my friends.” These friends are hiding out in a cabin, and when the wolf appears with the drawing, they flee, wolf on their tail, leaving the boy to hang up his almost-captor’s art. This is a very pleasing tale of outwitting the bad guy, illustrated using a limited palette of browns, mustards, reds, with simple, sophisticated drawings. [To buy the book from Amazon, click here.]

About Jesse Kornbluth

Jesse Kornbluth is is a New York-based writer and editor of HeadButler.com, a cultural concierge site he launched in 2004. As a magazine journalist, he has been a contributing editor for Vanity Fair, New York and Architectural Digest. As an author, his books include Airborne: The Triumph and Struggle of Michael Jordan; Highly Confident: The Crime and Punishment of Michael Milken and Pre-Pop Warhol. As a screenwriter, he has written for Robert De Niro, Paul Newman and PBS. On the Web, he co-founded Bookreporter.com. From 1997 to 2002, he was Editorial Director of America Online.